PURPOSE: Electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy (ENB) provides improved targeting accuracy during transbronchial biopsies of suspicious nodules. The greatest weakness of ENB-based guidance is the registration divergence that exists between the planning CT, acquired days or weeks before the intervention, and the patient on the table on the day of the intervention. Augmenting ENB guidance with real-time tomosynthesis imaging during the intervention could mitigate the divergence and further improve the yield of ENB-guided transbronchial biopsies...

BACKGROUND: Persistent pain in shoulder and arm following post-surgical breast cancer treatment can lead to cognitive and physical deficits. Depression is also common in breast cancer survivors. Virtual reality therapy with integrative cognitive and physical rehabilitation has not been clinically trialed for this population. The novel BrightArm Duo technology improved cognition and upper extremity (UE) function for other diagnoses and has great potential to benefit individuals coping with post-surgical breast cancer pain...

By photoionizing samples of laser-cooled atoms with laser light tuned just above the ionization limit, plasmas can be created with electron and ion temperatures below 10 K. These ultracold neutral plasmas have extended the temperature bounds of plasma physics by two orders of magnitude. Table-top experiments, using many of the tools from atomic physics, allow for the study of plasma phenomena in this new regime with independent control over the density and temperature of the plasma through the excitation process...

Efficient encoding of object contours in images can facilitate advanced image / video compression techniques, such as shape-adaptive transform coding or motion prediction of arbitrarily shaped pixel blocks. We study the problem of lossless and lossy compression of detected contours in images. Specifically, we first convert a detected object contour to a sequence of directional symbols drawn from a small alphabet. To encode the symbol sequence using arithmetic coding, we compute an optimal variable-length context tree (VCT) T via a maximum a posterior (MAP) formulation to estimate symbols' conditional probabilities...

Purpose: To determine the feasibility of a 49-channel suprachoroidal-transretinal stimulation (STS) retinal prosthesis that was implanted for 1 year. Methods: Three patients with advanced retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and with less than or equal to hand motion (HM) vision were studied. A 49-channel STS system was implanted in a scleral pocket, and the stability of the prosthesis, adverse events, and its efficacy were investigated. Results: The electrode array was implanted in a scleral pocket located under the parafoveal area through a scleral incision at 14 mm in patient (Pt) 1, 16 mm in Pt 2, and 18 mm in Pt 3 from the sclerocorneal limbus...

BACKGROUND: To present the first case series of total robotic hysterectomy (TRH), using integrated table motion (ITM), which is a new feature comprising a unique operating table by Trumpf Medical that communicates wirelessly with the da Vinci Xi surgical system. ITM has been specifically developed to improve multiquadrant robotic surgery such as that conducted in colorectal surgery. METHODS: Between May and October 2015, a prospective post-market study was conducted on ITM in the EU in 40 cases from different specialties...

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of IQ-SPECT gated blood pool (MUGA) under conditions of decreased scan time (ST). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Ten patients underwent routine 26-min, two-view planar, followed by LEHR and IQ-SPECT MUGA, on a Siemens dual-head Symbia scanner. Six 'back and forth' 4-min SPECT scans were summed into 4-, 8-, 12-, 16-, 20-, and 24-min equivalent scans, and reconstructed iteratively (IQ-SPECT and LEHR) and with FBP (LEHR)...

Previous research has found that the perception of our hands is inaccurate. This distorted representation has several constant characteristics including an overestimation of hand width and an underestimation of finger length. In this study, we further investigate this phenomenon by exploring the boundaries of hand representation. Participants placed one hand underneath a table top so it was occluded from view. Using their free hand, participants were instructed to point to the location where they believed the tips and bases of each of their fingers were...

BACKGROUND: Children undergoing computerized tomography (CT) frequently require sedation to allay their anxiety, and prevent motion artifacts and stress of intravenous (IV) cannulation. AIMS: The aim of this trial was to compare the effectiveness of oral midazolam and intranasal dexmedetomidine as sole premedicants in children for carrying out both IV cannulation as well as CT scanning, without the need for additional IV sedatives. METHODS: Fifty-nine children, aged 1-6 years, scheduled to undergo CT imaging under sedation were randomized to receive either 0...

PURPOSE: To determine the isolated function of the pubofemoral ligament of the hip capsule and its contribution to hip stability in external/internal rotational motion during flexion greater than 30° and abduction. METHODS: Thirteen hips from 7 fresh-frozen pelvis-to-toe cadavers were skeletonized from the lumbar spine to the distal femur with the capsular ligaments intact. Computed tomographic imaging was performed to ensure no occult pathological state existed, and assess bony anatomy...

We proposed a simple visual method for evaluating the dynamic tumor tracking (DTT) accuracy of a gimbal mechanism using a light field. A single photon beam was set with a field size of 30 × 30 mm2 at a gantry angle of 90°. The center of a cube phantom was set up at the isocenter of a motion table, and 4D modeling was performed based on the tumor and infrared (IR) marker motion. After 4D modeling, the cube phantom was replaced with a sheet of paper, which was placed perpen-dicularly, and a light field was projected on the sheet of paper...

OBJECTIVE: Distal sensorimotor polyneuropathy (DPN) is a leading risk factor of developing ulcer, including increased pressures at the forefoot. The rocker sole shoes are prescribed to decrease pressures but could induce instability [1]. The aim of this study was to compare the postural stability between normal shoes (NS) and rocker sole shoes (RSS) in patients with type 2 diabetes and DPN. MATERIAL/PATIENTS AND METHODS: In this preliminary, randomized, controlled study, NS and RSS were compared during static standing and gait...

AIM: To review and report functional outcomes, complications, and survivorship associated with total knee arthroplasty (TKA) in the treatment of post-traumatic arthritis (PTA). METHODS: We conducted a systematic review according to the PRISMA guidelines. We searched PubMed, Cochrane Library, and SCOPUS in December 2015 for English-language clinical research studies, both prospective and retrospective, examining the use of TKA for the treatment of PTA. All relevant articles were accessed in full...

CONTEXT: Prone hip extension has been recommended for strengthening the back and hip muscles. Previous studies have investigated prone hip extension conducted with subjects on the floor in the prone position. However, no study has compared three different table hip extension (THE) positions in terms of the activities of the back and hip joint muscles with lumbopelvic motion. OBJECTIVE: This study sought to identify more effective exercises for strengthening the gluteus maximus (GM) by comparing three different exercises [THE alone, THE with the abdominal drawing-in maneuver (THEA), and THEA with chair support under the knee (THEAC)] based on electromyographic muscle activity and pelvic compensation...

Conventional radiographs play an important role as a first line imaging modality in the assessment for suspected hip fractures in the majority of trauma centres. The routinely performed radiographic projections in our emergency department for patients with clinically suspected hip fractures include antero-posterior (AP) and cross-table lateral views of the affected hip. Certain clinical scenarios which include the presence of significant pain of the injured lower limb, a large patient habitus, as well as pre-existing patient morbidity which would limit the range of motion of the lower limbs, for example the presence of prior joint replacement surgery or lower limb contractures, may however preclude proper positioning of the patient to obtain an optimal cross-table lateral view of the affected hip...

We demonstrate the use of a compound optical cavity as linear displacement detector, by measuring the thermal motion of a silicon nitride suspended membrane acting as the external mirror of a near-infrared Littrow laser diode. Fluctuations in the laser optical power induced by the membrane vibrations are collected by a photodiode integrated within the laser, and then measured with a spectrum analyzer. The dynamics of the membrane driven by a piezoelectric actuator is investigated as a function of air pressure and actuator displacement in a homodyne configuration...